Introduction

This book is an examination of the role of universities around the world in mobilising research knowledge in education. The idea of ‘mobilising’ research knowledge is explained more fully in the next chapter, but essentially is about building stronger connections between research, policy and practice so that, to the extent possible, education practice can be based on reliable evidence rather than belief, ideology or whim.

The ability of universities to be effective mobilisers of research knowledge depends on several factors. One is the overall organisation of research in a country – how much is done, how it is funded, and so on. Another is the organisation of the higher education system, the roles of various institutions, and the relationship between universities and government. And the final and most important is the way universities think about and undertake the work of making their research more accessible and useful to policy and practice. These issues provide the frame for this chapter.

The main content of the book is chapters from scholars at universities in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States. Each of those chapters looks at the way education research done by universities is organised and shared in that country. This first chapter provides an overview of the book drawing out themes, commonalities and differences in relation to its central organising questions.

This work grows out of the International Alliance of Leading Educational Institutions, a network of research-focused faculties of education in 10 countries (www.intlalliance.org). Each year, the Alliance organises an international conference based on national reports from the member countries on a theme of common interest. At its 2011 meeting, held in Toronto, the theme was ‘research knowledge mobilisation’, and the papers generated at that meeting, subsequently revised, form much of the content of this book. That meeting, and the creation of this book, were both facilitated by the Research Supporting Practice in Education (RSPE) research team at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto (www. oise.utoronto.ca/rspe), a group of researchers and graduate students who are conducting various studies and projects on this theme.